The Dolphin Coast has experienced prolific growth in the past 10 and there is a burgeoning Service industry operating in this region, with several thousand SP’s currently accessing and providing services to some of the leading gated estates and residents of the larger Dolphin Coast Community
The 4Portals Executive team founded the Private Property Portal in the late 1990’s and consequently have vast experience in the establishment and successful launch of all things Online. The owners of the business having personally experienced very poor workmanship in the past, decided to introduce a portal and concept to change the current modus operandi when it comes to finding and engaging the services of a local contractor or service provider.
Currently residents in gated estates either have to use a google type search when looking for local contractors and in most instances, rely on, ‘lady luck’, or hopefully, ‘word of mouth’, to find a reputable contractor.
Alternatively residents of gated estates often approach their respective Home Owners Association (HOA’s) or administrative teams when seeking a local contractor. In some instances they may be provided with a spreadsheet of names with no references as HOA’s cannot be seen to be recommending companies and need to remain impartial. However there is generally no easily accessible database of local contractors at their disposal.
In addition to the challenge of searching for contractors, there is also the need for these contractors to be, ‘Security Vetted and Cleared’, before they can access these gated estates.
It is common knowledge that Contractors pose the greatest security risk to both gated estates and indeed residents of Suburban Neighbourhoods as casual labour is often brought into these environments on an, ‘ad hoc’ basis, with either no, or very little screening of this casual labour.
The 4traders executive team spotted the need and opportunity to look to change this whole environment and the 4Traders concept and Portal was established in early 2015. The basic 4traders service offering, enables residents of both gated communities and suburbia to easily find, ‘local contractors and suppliers’ by simply typing in what they are looking for. The predictive text and powerful relational database engine developed and managed by 4Traders takes care of the rest.
This 4Traders engine can also be linked to individual gated estates and neighbourhood watch groups web sites or App’s, ultimately allowing the management associations of these organizations to control who is allowed to appear in the database, should they so wish.
4Traders medium to long term goal is to integrate the 4Traders database and backend into the Access Control Solutions of these estates and neighbourhood watch groups, to ensure they seamlessly interact with one another and more importantly reduce the overall risk of contractor access.
This will make us of RFID and other Geo Tracking and Fencing technology, meaning not only will contractor access be monitored and controlled but the movement of contractors and their labourers in these environments can and will be able to be monitored, tracked and controlled on a real-time basis.
4Traders is excited to be instrumental in launching this new service and portal to residents and the broader Dolphin Coast Community and looks forward to enhancing and improving the service in the best interests of residents and contractors alike. More information can be found a the following link http://www.ballitonw.org.za/4traders/